Fawlty Towers provides another reason for optimism

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Sometime in the 1980s, I discovered Fawlty Towers. A family member had taped all of the shows from the BBC on the VCR, and I watched them for the first time. I thought I was going to die laughing.

Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) has to be one of the most imaginative characters ever created. He is a complete loon. And his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) is a hilarious counterpart. (In one classic moment, John Cleese refers to his wife as “my little nest of vipers.”) The interaction with the Spanish waiter, Manuel, who doesn’t speak English, and Basil Fawlty is incomparable.

So, expecting to share with my wife this amusing show, which she had never seen, I ordered the complete 12-volume set on DVD and sat down to watch with her. And something funny happened. Not funny as in laughing, but funny as in strange. It wasn’t amusing anymore.

I still got a few chuckles, but I didn’t roll over laughing as I had when I was younger. In fact, I couldn’t even get through all 12 episodes. What happened? Was it me or was it the show?

I have a theory which is a cause for some optimism about society. A lot of the humor in Fawlty Towers involves physical humor — people hitting people and people threatening to hit people. And a lot of the humor involves a dysfunctional family life with a husband and wife who genuinely seem to despise each other. Given all of society’s ills — and the changing standards of what is acceptable behavior — I just didn’t find it funny, whereas 20 years ago it was.

Think about it. Until recently, threatening to hit somebody — or actually hitting them — made up a lot of the comedy action. Think of the “Honeymooners” or “I Love Lucy” or “The Three Stooges.” I was watching “Gone With the Wind” the other day and Rhett threatens to whip Scarlett when he is mad at her, and I thought, “yeah, that’s what a man would have done to a woman in those days,” but these days threatening to whip your wife can land you in jail. Think about “The Philadelphia Story” with its signature scene of Cary Grant pushing Katherine Hepburn violently through the door as he leaves. These days, Cary Grant would be a wife-beater thrown the slammer. In those days, his act was hilarious and celebrated.

All in all, this is a very good thing. Family violence is no longer funny or the source of our humor. It’s a serious thing. It means the Satanic work of creating contention is taking over a home. Modern-day prophets have long preached against violence at home. And finally it’s starting to take root — family violence is simply unacceptable and definitely not politically correct.

So if it means that Fawlty Towers is less funny, that’s OK. It may mean that more husbands and wives find ways to restrain themselves and control their meanest impulses. And that’s another reason for optimism.

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About Geoff B.

Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.

24 thoughts on “Fawlty Towers provides another reason for optimism”

  1. “So if it means that Fawlty Towers is less funny, that’s OK. It may mean that more husbands and wives find ways to restrain themselves and control their meanest impulses.”

    It means that nowadays a couple that bickers gets divorced, so seeing a bickering couple on the screen is bizarre.

  2. I think people have changed from finding physical violence funny towards being entertained by “emotional” violence (extreme embarrasment, intimidation, lying, cheating, etc.) Watch a few episodes of the British version of “The Office”, and you’ll see what I mean. Although, “The Sopranos” is still wildly popular. And Russell Crowe’s recent outburst hurling a phone at a hotel employee when he couldn’t place a call to his wife in Australia was the topic of a quite a few laughs on David Letterman the other night. I’m failing to find the humor in this situation, but then again, I’m not a Letterman fan.

  3. Geoff, were the mixed-up messages on the Faulty Towers sign still funny? (“Farty Towels” was my favorite at 15.)

    Family violence may not be widespread fodder for TV humor anymore (although cartoon characters choking each other, ala Simpsons, must still have appeal) but it’s sad that family hatred/dysfunction is pretty much a given on most shows (I’d say all, but I don’t watch enough TV to really know).

    Have you tried watching “The Young Ones” again?

  5. While we’re on the subject of British comedies, my mother is absolutely in love with the comedy “Are You Being Served”, which features a very flamboyant gay employee working in the men’s clothing department of a large department store. Because my mother is an extremely devout (and sometimes extremely judgmental) Mormon,
    I find this incredibly amusing – sort of like being really into “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, but still being homophobic. Strange.

  6. Urg, Are you being served is quite possibly the stupidest, most unfunny show ever made, although it does feature surprisingly little domestic violence. You should go to Keeping Up Appearances for your PBS-endorsed unfunny British domestic abuse nowadays.

  7. Perhaps you’re just getting old and boring. I haven’t seen Fawlty Towers for quite some time, but I always thought the funniest parts (painfully funny) were the trainwrecks Basil set himself up for over and over again by stretching the truth.

    And, the best of the mixed-up signs was “Flowery ****s.” Since this is a family-oriented slightly blue-nosed blog, I can’t write it out. You’ll have to work the anagram.

  9. Adam (#1), there are still plenty of bickering couples on TV. Just think of King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond, where much of the humor involves them arguing. But they don’t threaten to hit each other. The prophets have counseled that marriage relationships that involve physical violence are abusive and that divorce is justified in those cases.

  10. The broad physical comedy of “Fawlty Towers” is of an entirely different kind than the gendered violence of “Gone with the Wind” or even “A Philadelphia Story.” The disappearance of both from mainstream media, though, almost certainly owes virtually nothing to the warnings of modern-day prophets, and everything to organic evolution in genre, for the former, and for the latter, the efforts of feminism to politicize domestic violence.

  11. Maybe you are just not into the hyperness of Basil anymore. Tastes change. I used to in my twenties enjoy watching Sesame Street and children’s programming somewhat. When I first encountered Teletubbies, I was very amused by the novelty. Now, I do not get the level of enjoyment out of either that I once did. It has been a long time since I watched Faulty Towers. He always seemed so stressed to me and jumping up and down. Maybe you want something more relaxing now.

    My all time favorite British comedy is “Keeping Up Appearances.” We must all guard against the little bit of Hyancinth that can be in all of us. Of course, we do not want to go to the other extreme and emulate Daisy and her intellectual husband who is idle deep down to his bones.

  12. What can I say, I get embarrasses for Fawlty constantly getting himself in difficulty and he gets so uptight he passes out. Cleese is a comic genius, and I believe Fawlty Towers is compulsory in some Lietrature subjects in Undergrad courses here in Australia

  13. I haven’t watched Fawlty for a while so I’ll put your theory to the test. I have a hunch I’ll still find it funny, but less so. In times past, what I found so funny about the show was that Basil was such a transparent windbag, and everyone knews it (including Basil, down deep). I don’t remember laughing at the violence or threats of violence, but what made it funny was that Basil was so incapable of inflicting real violence that his threats to do so were hilarious. (I will always remember the episode when Basil was in the kitchen, trying to placate the disappointed American guest by pretending to beat up an imaginary cook.) To a certain extent, we all see a tiny bit of ourselves in Basil (wildly exaggerated) and that’s what makes us laugh at him.

  15. Rosalynde, I’m not sure I agree on your causes for the change. I think many cultural trends are first mentioned by prophets and the apostles and then eventually become politically correct — but not through direct association so we often don’t see it happening. Prophets talked about calm family environments and avoiding domestic violence long before it was politically correct. Now society is following the counsel. If we were to trace the roots of this, could it be that God’s representatives had something to do with it happening? I don’t have any direct evidence that this is so, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were. In any case, it’s certainly a worthwhile trend.

    Eric, I’m unlikely to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but I know about it. I wish I could say the irony was intentional, but it wasn’t.

  20. I must tell you, I met three guys in a bar when I was in New York City who told me they starred in a British sitcom. I can’t remember which show it was, but I have a picture of me and them, if anybody wants to help me with that.

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